Southern Fried DNN BlogSouthern Fried DNN User Group (Formerly Queen City DotNetNuke User Group QCDUG) blog covers DNN topics addressed by the usergroup at meetings, conventions and for the DNN community for North Carolina, South Carolina and the DNN community at large!<br/>&nbsp;<br/>http://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/tabid/208/Default.aspxSetting Simple SSL with Cloudflare + DNNhttp://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/46/setting-simple-ssl-with-cloudflare-dnn.aspxDNN Topics,GeneralThu, 14 Sep 2017 06:16:00 GMT<p>There&#39;s not too much to this blog post... I had to setup SSL certificates for two or three sites recently and encountered some troubles when working with CloudFlare and I thought it might be helpful to write up what I learned and what worked...</p>
<p>These tips assume that:</p>
<ol>
<li>You&#39;re already familiar with how DNN handles and manages SSL settings</li>
<li>Your&#39;e already running CloudFlare for the domain&#39;s DNS and it&#39;s active</li>
</ol>
<h4><strong>The Problem:&nbsp;Enforcing full-site SSL rules within DNN, and setting Admin &gt; Site Settings SSL Enabled AND SSL Enforced will not work when used with CloudFlare unless you go by the correct settings.</strong></h4>
<p>Depending on the settings combined, you can encounter issues where you have a dead site with redirect loops, or errors, and it&#39;s partially based on the combination of CloudFlare settings and server settings within IIS.</p>
<p>If you go through the steps of turning on an SSL setting in CloudFlare and then in DNN setting a portal&#39;s SSL Settings to Enabled AND Enforced, then you can experience these redirect loops. To find out more about them from CloudFlare, the following support article was helpful</p>
<p><a href="https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170566-Why-isn-t-SSL-working-for-my-site-">https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170566-Why-isn-t-SSL-working-for-my-site-</a></p>
<p>These parts from the article&nbsp;sounded like the issue encountered:</p>
<ul style="margin-left: 40px;">
<li><em>If you do not have a SSL certificate on your origin server, or simply can&#39;t&nbsp;use port 443 for web traffic, then you will need to use the Flexible setting&nbsp;in your Cloudflare dashboard. Selecting either the Full or Strict setting&nbsp;without a SSL certificate at your server will result in a 525/526 error</em></li>
<li><em>Selecting Flexible when your origin has a redirect from http to&nbsp;https leads to a redirect loop.&nbsp;In&nbsp;this case, assuming there is an SSL certificate at the origin, you should&nbsp;use Full or Full(strict).</em></li>
</ul>
<p>So, what&#39;s going on with these? Let&#39;s look more closely at CloudFlare&#39;s SSL settings</p>
<p>Within Cloudflare there are different settings for SSL action</p>
<ul>
<li>Off</li>
<li>Flexible</li>
<li>Full</li>
<li>Full(strict)</li>
</ul>
<p>You can learn more about them here (<a href="https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170416-What-do-the-SSL-options-mean-">https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170416-What-do-the-SSL-options-mean-</a>)</p>
<h4><strong>The Solutions: These settings combine together with DNN&#39;s SSL settings for you to have three different use-case scenarios:</strong></h4>
<h4><strong>Option One - Optional SSL</strong></h4>
<p>IF you want to allow SSL within DNN but do not need to enforce (Enabled but not Enforced), then the Flexible setting will work correctly for you and will allow CloudFlare&#39;s intermediate SSL certificate to function.</p>
<h4><strong>Option Two - Full (strict) SSL with a Third-Party Issued Certificate</strong></h4>
<p>IF you create a proper standard SSL certificate from a Certificate Issuing Authority, then you will set it up in standard fashion within IIS and then in DNN turn on Enabled AND ENFORCED and wtihin Cloudflare set it to Full(strict)</p>
<h4><strong>Option Three - Quick Self-Signed Certificate YET Secure from CloudFlare</strong></h4>
<p>However, if you want to do a more quick/simple step, often for validation that is for Google SEO / marketing use rather than eCommerce/security, then you can do the following</p>
<ol>
<li>Create a Self-Signed Certificate within IIS following these simple steps (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753127(v=ws.10).aspx)</li>
<li>In the website bindings within IIS, be sure to set the port/ssl cert for at least the www version of the domain</li>
<li>In DNN turn on SSL Enabled and Enforced</li>
<li>In the database (or manually) set all Tabs for this portal to IsSecure = True</li>
<li>In DNN clear cache / restart app pool</li>
<li>In CloudFlare set the SSL settings to Full</li>
</ol>
<p>At this point, once the site restarts, you will have enforced SSL state for all pages where you have set IsSecure and an SSL Certificate from CloudFlare will show to the browser.</p>
46Ryan Moore Presents at XMod Pro Dec User Group Sessionhttp://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/22/xmod-pro-dec-user-group-session.aspxGeneralMember AnnouncementsThu, 10 Dec 2015 20:54:41 GMT<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="/Portals/0/Blog/2015-12-10_15-07-38.jpg" style="float: right; width: 300px; height: 186px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 20px;" />Ryan Moore presented to the XMod Pro User Group in their December 2015 google hangout. This was part 2 of a 3-part series on recognizing and troubleshooting the various error messages that you can encounter when working within XMod Pro development in DNN.</p>
<div style="clear: both;">&nbsp;</div>
<h2>&nbsp;</h2>
<h2>XMod Pro Google+ Hangout:</h2>
<p><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/crcfh00kisroiq7h6c1gfmle5jg" target="_blank">https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/crcfh00kisroiq7h6c1gfmle5jg&nbsp;</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
<p><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/crcfh00kisroiq7h6c1gfmle5jg" target="_blank"><em>XMod Pro User Group Meeting, December 2015 - Google+</em></a></p>
<p><em>We&#39;ve got a Gift for a lucky viewer! Since two holidays (Thanksgiving US &amp; Christmas) fall on our normal 4th Thursday schedule, we&#39;re once again combining the November and December meetings into one. Please join us on Thursday, December 10, at 11am PST, 2pm EST to watch it live and be eligible to win a gift. Ryan Moore dives into Part 2 of 3 in his presentation on &quot;XMod Pro Error Messages... What They Mean and How to Troubleshoot Them.&quot; In Part 1 (on May 28, 2015), he reviewed common SQL-related error messages and started Template-related error messages. Part 2 is a continuation and moves through more Template and Form-related errors. This is a great place to Learn about and discuss XMod Pro with other XModders! Post here or send Kelly an email at kford (at) dnndev (dot) com, if you have any thoughts, ideas, or would like to present at a future user group meeting. We hope to see you there</em>!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>XMod Pro Error Presentation (Prezi)</h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/XMPerrorsPrezi" rel="noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #439fe0; outline: 0px; font-family: Slack-Lato, appleLogo, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; background-color: #f9f9f9;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/XMPerrorsPrezi</a><br />
<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="/Portals/0/Prezi-Home.jpg" style="height: 501px; line-height: 22.4px; width: 720px; float: right; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 20px;" /></p>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
22Creating a Powerful Custom Hotcakes Commerce Skin/Theme Object Using the Server-Side APIhttp://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/19/creating-a-powerful-custom-hotcakes-commerce-skintheme-object-using-the-server-side-api.aspxDNN Topics,GeneralThu, 05 Nov 2015 06:25:25 GMT<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Please raise your hand if you&#39;ve ever wanted to display some dynamic&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.hotcakescommerce.com/" target="_blank" title="Hotcakes Commerce">Hotcakes Commerce</a><span>&nbsp;data in a specific spot and in a specific way within your overall website design layout? And besides that, you really didn&rsquo;t want to give administrators the option of changing its placement within site?</span></p>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Creating a custom module can be a daunting task for first-timers and you are still left with the fact that a custom module has to be placed within a content pane within your overall theme design. &nbsp;The very nature of this type of extension allows administrators the ability to move it around on the page(s) at will.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><a href="https://hotcakescommerce.com/Learn/DetailsPage/tabid/150/ArticleID/49/Creating-Custom-Viewsets.aspx" target="_blank" title="Creating Custom Viewsets">Creating a custom viewset</a>&nbsp;is a much more familiar proposition for those familiar with the&nbsp;<a href="https://hotcakescommerce.com/Learn/DetailsPage/tabid/150/ArticleID/47/Extension-Points.aspx" target="_blank" title="Hotcakes Commerce Extension Points">Hotcakes Commerce extension points</a>, but the fact still remains that custom views are rendered within the context of a Hotcakes Commerce module, which in turn brings you right back to the scenario above &ndash; allowing administrators the ability to move it around on the page(s) at will.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Well, there&#39;s good news: &nbsp;Creating a powerful, custom&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hotcakescommerce.com/" target="_blank" title="Hotcakes Commerce">Hotcakes Commerce</a>&nbsp;theme object doesn&#39;t have to be that daunting. With the right starter project and understanding at your disposal, you could easily display the desired dynamic Hotcakes Commerce data within your site pages -- all without a huge budget or time investment.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<p><a href="https://github.com/nvisionative/HotcakesCartItemCount/releases" target="_blank" title="Hotcakes Cart Item Count Theme Object - Release">Download the free theme object extension install package on GitHub</a>, and we&rsquo;ll walk through exactly how to use it in this&nbsp;<strong>Part 1</strong>&nbsp;of the blog series. &nbsp;In&nbsp;<strong>Part 2</strong>, we&rsquo;ll go even deeper and show you how to utilize the&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/nvisionative/HotcakesCartItemCount" target="_blank" title="Visual Studio project from GitHub">starter Visual Studio project from GitHub</a>&nbsp;or <a href="https://hotcakescartitemcount.codeplex.com" target="_blank" title="Codeplex">Codeplex</a>. <span>The project is also listed on&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/hotcakes-cart-item-count" target="_blank" title="DNN Forge">DNN Forge</a><span>. &nbsp;</span>When we&#39;re done you&#39;ll know exactly how to create a powerful custom Hotcakes Commerce theme object that leverages the&nbsp;<strong>server-side API</strong>&nbsp;to get the exact dynamic data and display it as you wish. Ready? Let&#39;s dive in.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>9 Easy Steps to Installing this Powerful Custom Hotcakes Commerce Theme Object</h2>
<p>Before we look into the steps, please note this theme object requires DNN 7.4.1 or higher and Hotcakes Commerce 1.8.7 or higher.</p>
<h3><strong>Step 1</strong></h3>
<p><a href="https://github.com/nvisionative/HotcakesCartItemCount/releases" target="_blank">Download the theme object installation package from GitHub</a><span>&nbsp;to a local directory of your choice. &nbsp;You&rsquo;ll want to download the file named &ldquo;HotcakesCartItemCount_1.0.0_Install.zip&rdquo;.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 2</strong></h3>
<p><span>Login to your CMS instance as a SuperUser (host) and visit Host &gt; Extensions.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 3</strong></h3>
<p>Click on &ldquo;Install Extension Wizard&rdquo;.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation1.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 4</strong></h3>
<p>In the popup, click &ldquo;Choose File&rdquo; and select the installation package downloaded in Step 1.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation2.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 5</strong></h3>
<p>Click &ldquo;Next&rdquo;.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation3.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 6</strong></h3>
<p>Click &ldquo;Next&rdquo; on the Package Information screen.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation4.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 7</strong></h3>
<p>Click &ldquo;Next&rdquo; on the Release Notes screen.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation5.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 8</strong></h3>
<p>Accept License and click &ldquo;Next&rdquo;.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation6.png" /><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 9</strong></h3>
<p>Upon installation success, click &ldquo;Return&rdquo;. &nbsp;If you have issues with the installation, please feel free to Create an Issue on GitHub.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-Installation7.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>2 Easy Steps to Integrate this Powerful Custom Hotcakes Commerce Theme Object With Your Theme</h2>
<h3><strong>Step 1</strong></h3>
<p>Within your theme file (ASCX) file, register the theme object by inserting the following code at the top of your file. &nbsp;There may be other theme objects already registered. &nbsp;That&rsquo;s okay, just add this one to any line within the other registrations.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-RegisterCode.png" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Step 2</strong></h3>
<p>Place the following code at any desired location within the same theme file.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://www.davidpoindexter.net/Portals/0/Hotcakes/HotcakesCartItemCount-ThemeObject-InjectCode.png" /><br />
<br />
See, nothing fancy going on here. As long as you are comfortable editing your theme files, it is all quite simple!&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In&nbsp;<strong>Part 2</strong>, we&#39;ll dig deeper into the code so that you&#39;ll be able to utilize these concepts to create your own powerful custom&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hotcakescommerce.com/" target="_blank" title="Hotcakes Commerce">Hotcakes Commerce</a>&nbsp;theme object using the server-side API. &nbsp;</p>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
19Good Bye QCDUG, Hello SouthernFried DNN!http://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/7/qcdug-becomes-southernfried-dnn.aspxGeneralSoFri MeetingsWed, 31 Dec 2014 06:00:00 GMT<h2>What happened to the QCDUG domain?</h2>
<p>Well, some time in November 2014, while we were all recovering from a great time had at the DNNCON, the domain name www.qcdug.com expired and was picked up by a dentist... who put up... a... wordpress site on the domain. It was something that none of us had a close eye on and we didn&#39;t realize it had expired!</p>
<h2>What&#39;s in a name?</h2>
<p>Well, that prompted some exciting discussion in our November user group meeting and by the time we celebrated for our Christmas party QCDUG meeting, we discussed at lengnth and resolved to make a choice that night.</p>
<p>&quot;We&#39;re more than just the Queen City DNN user group... we&#39;re for all of NC, and SC, how about Carolinas DUG?&quot; was one suggestion. That lead to additional ideas of reaching out to even more as another said, &quot;How about South East DUG for the whole region?&quot;</p>
<p>Charles Warnick chimed in, saying, &quot;Everyone loved the Southern Fried DNN name, why don&#39;t we call ourselves Southern Fried DNN?&quot; And the decision was instantaneous. Everyone loved the idea and the implications...</p>
<h2>Southern Fried Hospitality, Southern Fried Community, Southern Fried DNN</h2>
<p>We&#39;re more than just a Charlotte-area DNN User Group, we&#39;re YOUR user group. Wether you&#39;re in the South, from the south, or have that sense of home and community that centers around sharing with each other, you&#39;ll feel at home here.</p>
7Vote For The New QCDUG Logohttp://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/4/vote-for-the-new-qcdug-logo.aspxGeneralMember AnnouncementsThu, 06 Nov 2014 18:10:12 GMT<p>Calling all QCDUG Members, it&#39;s time to VOTE!</p>
<p>As we continue to revamp items of the QCDUG website and online presence, we reach the time to unveil the new QCDUG logo.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, as we started the project, we discussed the original logo and how we are all fond of our original awesome logo, but that the times move on... DNN has released their new marketing direction and we&#39;ve seen a year now of that new look settle in to a well established brand look. WIth the absense of the older nuke and gear elements, our old logo needed a change to keep up too!</p>
<p>That&#39;s where your part comes in... through rounds of sketches and revisions to concepts, it&#39;s narrowed down to four favorites. Each has different merits and would be a bold new look. Time for you to log in to the website and cast your vote!</p>
<p>You can vote once a day and as long as we have enough participation, we&#39;ll close voting and announce the chosen logo at DNN After Dark while we&#39;re all partying at DNN Con this weekend.</p>
<p>Vote once a day on your favorite, spread your votes out among your favorites or concentrate all on one. Get in there and express your choice!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Voting on the QCDUG 2014 New Logo</h2>
<h2><a href="/2014QCDUGLogoVoting/tabid/274/Default.aspx">http://www.qcdug.com/2014QCDUGLogoVoting</a></h2>
4New QCDUG Brand, Website, Bloghttp://southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/2/new-qcdug-brand-website-blog.aspxGeneralWed, 15 Oct 2014 15:29:15 GMT<p>We&#39;ve needed an update to the QCDUG site for a little while now and as we all settle to our new roles running QCDUG events and managing the QCDUG marketing messages (website, email, twitter,&nbsp;etc), we&#39;ll continue posting new updates and additions.</p>
<p>Today&#39;s post celebrates a few of those new items and gives a nod and thankyou to the old versions of each.</p>
<h2>New QCDUG Website Skin</h2>
<p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Images/QCDUG-Website-2011.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 254px; margin: 0px 20px; float: right;" />The original QCDUG skin was (IS) fantastic! Produced by Clint Patterson in his hobby-days of DNN before he was invited to join corp and become our favorite DNN enthusiast and promoter full-time.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Logo.png" style="width: 125px; height: 80px; margin: 0px 20px; float: right;" />The new QCDUG skin is from long-time DNN Module developer &amp; superstar Mandeep Singh of <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com">www.mandeeps.com</a>. You&#39;ll know him for the indespensible modules <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products/dotnetnuke-modules/live-tabs.aspx">Live Tabs</a> and <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products/dotnetnuke-modules/live-content.aspx">Live Content</a> as well as the growing <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products.aspx">family of &quot;Live&quot; modules</a>. With his introduction into skins, the newly released <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products/dotnetnuke-skins/porto.aspx">Porto Skin</a> is a clean, modern skin that is mobile responsive focused and integrates fantastically with the <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products/dotnetnuke-modules/live-blog.aspx">Live Blog</a> module.</p>
<h2>New QCDUG Blog Module</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products/dotnetnuke-modules/live-blog.aspx"><img alt="" src="http://www.mandeeps.com/portals/0/Shared/Images/Logos/Live-Blog.png" style="width: 62px; height: 64px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px; float: right; border: 0px;" /></a>Although we have an equally long-standing love for the core DNN Blog module, especially after the latest updates in the 6+ version level, the synergies between the new Porto skin and <a href="http://www.mandeeps.com/products/dotnetnuke-modules/live-blog.aspx">Mandeep&#39;s Live Blog module</a> were too much to resist! The install process to setup Live Blogs is simple and quick. The ability to set the Theme for the blog settings to be the Porto style made it simple to style and integrate. But the best thing is likely the import process! The Live Blog module allows for automated import from older and other popular blog modules such as DNN Core Blog module (older ver 4x, 5x), DNN Core Blog module 6+, SunBlog, and other modules as well as from an external Google Blogger or WordPress blog.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>New QCDUG Logo</h2>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Images/QCDUG_Login_Logo.png" style="width: 267px; height: 102px; margin: 0px 20px;" /></p>
<p>The original logo was provided by the partnership of <a href="http://www.nvisionative.com/">nVISIONative&#39;s</a> Ansel Brown and David Poindexter. This logo captured the best of the chrome from our favorite old DotNetNuke logo version of the time and picked up the red from the beloved DNN gear / sprocket. While we toyed with the idea of keeping a gear in the new version of the logo, we felt it was time to update and match more the style and elements of the current new DNN logo.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Images/SouthernFriedDNN_logo_final.png" style="width: 150px; height: 126px; margin: 0px 20px;" /><br />
Allison Crossmon of Moore Creative was the designer for one of QCDUG&#39;s Day Of DNN conventions, the <a href="http://www.southernfrieddnn.com/">Southern Fried DNN event in 2013</a>. That logo helped set the mood for the successful DNN event that brought people from all over the southeast and all parts to our Queen City for some DNN Community excitement.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Images/Blog/QCDUG-D-Middle.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 125px;" /></p>
<p>The new look of DNN&#39;s new logo and new branding further inspired fun and creative ideas. There were several ideas that grew from the creative marks, shapes and colors of the new DNN feel. Those were presented to the QCDUG user group members during the DNNCON in West Palm Beach. Voting chose a winner that we&#39;ll be excited to see as the new look of QCDUG going forward!</p>
2